[Tyrannosaurs]

Really?

The XBox uses the web in the best way possible for a games console - on-line gaming. Maybe it's just me but I find a console a rubbish browsing platform - I've got browsers on my PS3, PSP and Wii and never use them. It is possible that Microsoft just don't have a browser in the 360 because it's not a great place to put a browser.

Microsoft own Hotmail, they've ported Office on-line, XBox supports on-line gaming, they make what is still the most popular single browser (which is under very active development), they produce web servers and a massive range of developer tools for the web from Visual Studio to Silverlight, they're working their arse off to get back into the mobile web market.

If they're not into the web they're doing their best to hide it with their actions and investments. They were, by their own admission, slow to get to it but I don't think that's a valid criticism now.

Now they're just all over the place but that's different to being anti.

[Xuzz]

The Internet is not the web. Native games with Internet multiplayer aren't the web, they are the Internet.

I don't know a single person using the online Office versions, because, well, they don't compare to the desktop ones.

Yesterday, I saw a graph showing Hotmail losing about 10% market share, mostly to Gmail.

Their new Xbox website broke every existing link on the domain.

Mocrosoft does not get the web, even if they might get the internet.

[Timmy_C]

The sites built for marketing Microsoft products are often outsourced. So the fact that the new Xbox website was broken in any regard is the fault of a poor marketing manager and not a poor Microsoft developer.

[cryptoz]

If a software company doesn't build its own software, then there are other, larger problems here.

(Yes, websites are software).

[Tyrannosaurs]

No, you outsource or buy where it's appropriate. They should no more build every Microsoft website than any other firm should write their own word processor.

[points]

FWIW, I disagree.

When MS announced support for facebook on the xBox, I thought "hmm why not just give users a browser". Then they announced twitter integration... "Umm how about just stuff a browser on there".

It's farcical. But OTOH, it fits right with MS's plan - they detest the www. It's open. It's free. It's not a walled garden they can monetize.

Last time I heard the web division at MS still makes a huge loss. Which leads me to believe they're not in it to make money. They're in it to mess it up, stifle progress, and keep people buying their installable software. They did an absolutely fantastic job of that for 5 years or so.

[potatolicious]

Have you used the PS3 browser? Or worse, the Wii browser?

One has to navigating the web with a joystick (have you tried it? It's fifth circle of hell terrible), the other has you suffering from cramps in 10 minutes flat.

If you've used the browsers, you know just astronomically bad those ideas are. A browser doesn't not belong on a joystick-driven device, it's slow to use and frustrating as hell. So why would MS put a browser on the Xbox?

And how exactly would a browser on the Xbox decrease their lock-in?

[points]

USB keyboard. Many people use the wii to browse.

[potatolicious]

Even if you eliminate the typing difficulties (and they are quite severe) of the platform, you still haven't replaced the mouse. On the PS3 it's tedious maneuvering of a pointer with a joystick (second order control system == frustration), on the Wii it's an arm-killing posture that is also aggravatingly imprecise.

But taking all of that out of the equation - assuming that magically the Wii and the PS3 are both capable of interacting with USB mice and keyboards... how many people do you know who have an (extension cord required) USB connection to a keyboard and mouse combo on their couch? I can count these people on one hand. In fact I can count them on 3 fingers, and all are pretty hardcore tech geeks to boot.

[CrazedGeek]

FWIW, the PS3 does support mice and keyboards. Works decently in the web browser.